wfn.org | CRWRC Calls out Local Volunteers to North Dakota Floods

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CRWRC Media Contact Beth DeGraff, cell 616-648-7821 or 1-800-55-CRWRC

CRWRC Disaster Response Director Bill Adams, cell 616-560-2782

CRWRC Calls out Local Volunteers to North Dakota Floods

MARCH 27, 2009 ? With the Red River expected to crest above a record-breaking 41 feet in Fargo, North Dakota, early tomorrow, disaster response volunteers have been called to the scene by the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (www.crwrc.org).

An urgent appeal to residents in nearby counties to assist with sandbagging and risk reduction through today was distributed on Tuesday to local congregations in the area. That evening, President Obama declared the flood area a federal emergency.

Tuesday?s request by CRWRC-DRS staff asked local Christian Reformed church members to ?use prayer chains, word of mouth or whatever means you have at your disposal to make potential volunteers within your communities aware of this urgent need?.?

CRWRC-DRS groups manager Art Opperwall said this morning that traffic, bad weather, and other congestion concerns are causing crisis management personnel in Fargo to request that only local volunteers respond at this point. Opperwall says that residents and volunteers continue to fill and place sandbags on a 24-hour rotation today.

CRWRC-DRS regional manager Jay DeBoer is collaborating with local authorities in Fargo and other relief organizations on a near-daily basis this week. ?There are minimal folks in shelters at this point,? DeBoer says. ?Residents in this area are known to stay with relatives rather than shelter, although some neighborhoods, nursing homes and hospitals have been partially evacuated.?

DeBoer reports that while disaster preparedness has improved greatly since the organization responded to a major flood of the Red River in 1997, flood levels are expected to rise several feet above that total to 42 or 43 feet. The situation and the needs change by the hour, DeBoer said.

CRWRC is appealing for funds for flood response in North Dakota and potential responses in Minnesota and Southern Manitoba, where the water is expected to crest in the next ten days, according to CRWRC international relief director Jacob Kramer. In the Southern portion of the U.S., tornadoes destroyed 60 homes and injured 29 people in Mississippi this week, where CRWRC-DRS continues to rebuild homes after Hurricane Katrina, and is collaborating with other relief agencies to re-form their response in the area.

Financial donations for Red River flood response in North Dakota, Minnesota, and Manitoba, as well as tornadoes and in Mississippi and across the Southern U.S., can be designated ?Spring Storms 2009? online at www.crwrc.org or called in to 1-800-55-CRWRC in the U.S. and 1-800-730-3490 in Canada.

Members of the media wishing interview with CRWRC-DRS manger Bill Adams, call cell 616-560-2782. For information about CRWRC or contacts, call CRWRC-US media contact Beth DeGraff at cell 616-648-7821 or 1-800-55-CRWRC.

CRWRC is a relief, development, and justice organization active in more than 40 countries, ministering to the poorest of the poor around the world since 1963.

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"No. No, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream." MLK

> Beth DeGraff
> CRWRC Media and Justice Contact
> 2850 Kalamazoo Avenue SE
> Grand Rapids, MI 49560-0600
> 1-800-55-CRWRC
> www.crwrc.org

Note that my email address has changed to bdegraff@crwrc.org.

CRWRC is a registered non-profit agency of the CRC-NA in both the U.S. and Canada.